Cuvée Noire

The Belgians, they say, don’t actually much believe in the idea of beer styles. Having been to Belgium, we have to agree – we can lump some beers together by type, but Belgian brewing has a sort of wooly individuality that we admire. We are surely telling the truth if we say that British and Irish dark beers tend to be colored and flavored by roasted malts. And it’s equally true to say that Belgian dark beers tend to be colored and flavored with caramelized sugar syrup, giving them a very different set of flavors from their cousins across the Channel.

Well, it doesn’t have to be that way. We love our Belgian yeasts and we also love stout, so you knew this would happen eventually. Brooklyn Cuvée Noire starts with a solid base of German malts, builds color and flavor from British and American roasted malts, gains rum notes from Mauritius raw sugar, grabs a hint of citrus from sweet orange peel, and then ferments under the flag of Belgium. Our Belgian house yeast lends the beer a gentle spiciness on a dry, brisk palate displaying light notes of chocolate, coffee and citrus, all underneath a fluffy tan head. The finish is clean and dry. Cuvée Noire is big enough to take a steak to dinner, roasty enough to love Mexican molé sauce, and complex enough to enjoy with nothing more than a good conversation.

And as for the style thing, well, we’ll all just have to relax about this one. I mean, we’re not even sure that Belgium even has a government right now, and they don’t seem to be worrying much about it. So have yourself a Brooklyn Cuvée Noire. It’s from Brooklyn, not Belgium. We don’t have a king. Don’t fence us in.